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Rant: My $80 camp stove gave out on day two of a week-long trip
I was out in the Shenandoah mountains last month, maybe 10 miles from the trailhead, and my stove just stopped working. It's one of those compact butane stoves, worked fine on day one, but on day two the valve got stuck and wouldn't let any gas out. I tried shaking it, tapping it, even took the canister off and put it back on, nothing. Ended up having to boil water over a fire for the next 5 days, which took forever and left all my pots black with soot. The worst part was I bought this stove because the reviews online were all 4 stars, guess they didn't test it for more than one meal. Has anyone else had a stove die on them mid-trip and what did you switch to?
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thomas_torres12d ago
Yo, same thing happened to me with a similar stove in the Adirondacks. Valve seized up on the third morning, no way to fix it without tools I didn't pack. I switched to a liquid fuel stove after that and haven't had a problem since, even in cold weather.
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davis.noah12d ago
Whoa, that's a good point about liquid fuel. But here's something I don't see folks talking about - sometimes the real issue isn't the stove itself, it's how we store it between trips. I've had two canister stoves lock up on me after leaving them attached to the propane tank in a damp gear closet. The valve gets this sticky residue from moisture mixing with the fuel over weeks, not just from use. Your experience in the Adirondacks probably could have been avoided by keeping the valve protected with a small cap too, but I've been wrong before.
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hall.joel12d ago
Take what that poster said about storage and really think about where you keep your gear between trips. I used to toss my stove in a garage bin with other camping stuff and had two canisters corrode at the valve before I figured out the damp air was doing the damage. Now I store the stove separately in a dry spot inside the house with the valve open a crack to let any moisture escape, and the thing has worked perfectly for three years straight.
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